Echoes of the 2010 Winter Olympics are all around. A mere 48 hours after Canada won the definitive hockey game in overtime, and the streets are filled with poignant echoes of these past two weeks of historical moments, indelible memories.

Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics

And how incredible those moments were, these memories are.

As people scrambled onto their trains, planes and buses this past day and a half, Vancouver has been left empty. Canada Hockey Place echoes with the glory of games won, victories lost; the Olympic Athletic Village is now bereft of its glorious inhabitants; BC Place echoes with the emptiness of the silence left after the golden podium moments, the Neil Young “Long May You Run,” sung lyrics.

Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue

The echoes, the emptiness are a dramatic reminder that people, energy, living organisms and the essence of being alive are what animate our Earth.

And isn’t that what is at the heart of this whole discussion of the “greenest Olympic games in history.” An urban landscape, without people, people who are alive, energetic and dynamic, is simply a lonely concrete urban landscape.

Men’s Short Track Relay

To come together and celebrate the glory of a select few athletes who have trained hard to be at the pinnacle of human athletic excellence is the Olympics. It’s as much the Olympics as the competitions themselves.

To leave a lasting legacy, a healthy planet, for these young athletes and their progeny, and all of the rest of us who currently call planet Earth home, is what is at the heart of this whole carbon neutral conversation, this ongoing dialogue about Greenhouse Gas Emissions.

Shaun White

St. Gelais

Whether the Vancouver 2010 Olympic games were the greenest in history is not what is the most important criteria by which to judge. What the most important criteria by which to judge is that there was significant attention placed on the importance of Greening the Olympics. And the threads of green were evidenced throughout the games, like an intricate brocade of spun gold, in this case, spun green.

Julia Mancuso and Lindsey Vonn

Three billion people worldwide watched the Winter Olympics. Hundreds of thousands walked the streets of Vancouver where no matter where you looked you saw recyclable trash cans, alternative energy showcases, streamlined public transportation, carbon offset programs…and pedestrians. Visitors to the Olympics no doubt learned a lot about Vancouver, and also couldn’t avoid learning about environmental practices while they were there.

Jasey Jay Anderson

The power of sporting events to galvanize people, to galvanize nations was once again on display.

On the fuel-cell powered shuttle bus ride back from the NRC fuel cell research center, I was engaged in a friendly discussion with a fellow journalist from Reuters. “Are the games really the greenest?” she asked me. My response to her, and now, is that it depends on where you focus and it depends on your mindset. Sure, a Zamboni or two may have malfunctioned on the ice a couple of times, but where else has it been achieved to focus 3 billion people’s attention on the issue of environmentally friendlier ways of throwing sporting events where the whole world comes to celebrate?

Women’s Curling Team, Canada

Simon Ammann, Swiss, Photo by Dmitry Lovetsky, AssociatedPress

We will leave you with one last thought. Bio Plastic Ski Boots.

Atomic Ski Boots Made From Bio Plastics

Hnh? Yes, although plastics are simply, for the most part, solidified oil, DuPont has come up with a Bio Plastic called Hytrel® RS. It contains 35% to 65% renewably sourced material. The plastic is made with carbon captured from coal-factory smokestacks, some plastics can be made from 55% captured carbon; the goal is 100%.

Atomic Ski Boots manufactures the ski boots. The newest boots in the line are the Renu 110 and Renu 90. They are billed as the first carbon negative planet positive product in the ski boot world. They use a style of plastic called Pebax Renew Bio Plastic. Atomic says all components of the boots are reusable and recyclable.

Lindsey Vonn, who just moments ago took Olympic Gold for the U.S. in women’s downhill skiing, did so up at Whistler-Blackcomb mountain. She started from the No. 17 position and completed the long, 2,939-metre course in one minute, 44.19 seconds. She was 0.56 seconds ahead of her teammate Julia Mancuso, who was the 10th skier down, and a full 1.46 seconds ahead of the bronze medal winner Elisabeth Goergl of Austria.

Whistler plays host during these 2010 Winter Olympics to some of the most exciting sports of the competitive games: Bobsleigh, Luge and Men’s and Women’s downhill Alpine skiing and . It bills itself as the “best ski and snowboard resort in North America.” It is also playing host mountain resort for the Paralympic games.

Whistler Blackcomb Ski Runs

Locals will ask, “You know what they say about Whistler?” And then they’ll tell you: “The billionaires kicked out the millionaires.”

Whistler-Blackcomb is celebrating more than the Olympics this year. It is also celebrating the International Year of Biodiversity in 2010. Residents from the local Resort Municipality of Whistler are working to reduce biodiversity loss and protect habitats.

Biodiversity is being lost at a greatly accelerated rate because of human activities. This weakens the ability living systems, upon which we depend, to provide us with food, fuel, medicine and other life essentials.

Whistler has a biodiversity challenge. You can check it out at: Whistler

And if you are a skiier as well as an Olympic enthusiast, keep in mind that more than 90 per cent of Whistler Blackcomb’s terrain will remain open to recreation skiers during the Olympic Games.

The Olympics’ participating countries and also Canada’s Provinces are all hosting hospitality houses for the athletes, their friends, families and fans. Today is Alberta Day and the Province is running the Alberta Train from Vancouver to Whistler every day during the games, to help eliminate CO2 emissions from vehicle exhaust pipes that might otherwise be driven up and down the mountain. Home to more than just the country’s repository of Natural Gas reserves, Alberta’s cities of Calgary and Edmonton both have healthy environmental agendas. In addition, the Alberta House in Vancouver has been built with environmentally friendly design. The reclaimed wood lattices that adorn the outside of the building will all be donated and re-purposed once the building is turned back over to the original owner. The owner, a native Albertan, is also pleased with the interior upgrades the House designers bestowed on her business; upgrades that will be left intact once the Olympic Team packs up and leaves.

Austria has gone all out up in Whistler with its hospitality house. It built the Austria Passive House as one of only 12 passive houses in all of North America. Their mission, “to enable the future with the help of innovative and ecological ideas.”

Your task is not to foresee the future but to enable it. – Antoine de Saint Exupery

The 2,700 square foot house was inspired by traditional building of the country’s Alpine Regions, is a south-facing structure and is covered with a gable roof. The passive house was built using ecologically sustainable materials and without any glues, using instead diagonally dowelled fir structures.

The patented DD-Diagonal Dowel system is an example of the superb craftsmanship on display throughout the house. Natural insulating materials such as cork and sheep’s wool are used for the houses, windows and doors are made out of wood. These factors contribute to the top-quality ventilating system that’s at the core of every APG house and offers a “climatic spa” healthy living environment.

The Austria House was built as a “Legacy House” meaning that after the Olympic games are over, it will be handed over to the Resort Municipality of Whistler to become the home of the Whistler Nordic Ski club and the Whistler Outdoor Recreational Cycling Association (WORCA) in the summer. The Austrian Passive House Group and the Resort Municipality of Whistler worked together to develop this Legacy House. It expects to be a role model in Canada insofar as the house’s energy efficiency goes and claims to represent an “archetype of ecological architecture.”

Everyone tuned into the Olympics is excitedly anticipating U.S. Snowboarding magi Shaun White’s upcoming run later today. On Monday, America’s Seth Wescott won, in an upset, the men’s Olympic snowboard cross gold medal. Mike Robertson of Canada took Silver in the same competition.